Bag opener or tearing device



May 17, 1960 H. R. HELLER BAG OPENER OR TEARING DEVICE Filed Sept. 14. 1955 /..9 a g I) 9 A- 9 BY I N VEN TOR. 'fr

United States Patent.

BAG OPENER on TEARING DEVICE Hugo R. Heller, Chicago, 11].; Marion Heller, administra trix of said Hugo R. Heller, deceased The invention relates to bag openers.

The widespread use of scaled plastic bags for packaging food, chemicals, and various kinds of merchandise has brought with it the problem of opening such bags. The bag, whether it is made of paper, glassine, cellophane, Saran, polyethylene, Pliofilm, vinyl, Mylar, or any of the films common in bag production, has the function of preserving the freshness of the contents besides keeping out insect infestation, dirt and filth. It should be noted that in the majority of cases, the user takes a portion of the contents from the bag, and has difficulty in rescaling the balance of the contents in the mutilated bag for a future use. All too frequently, the contents become unusable after a short period in'the present manner of handling containers. With this simple form of opener, the top is neatly removed without longitudinal damage to the container allowing it to be rescaled with a rubber band, plastic tie, or any one of the dozens of other ways of rescaling bags which have not been damaged. 1

The invention further consists inthe several features hereinafter set forth and more particularly defined by the appended claim.

In the drawings:

Fig. 1 is a perspective view of an openerembodying the invention;

Fig. 2 is a side elevation view of the opener;

Fig. 3 is a plan view of the opener, parts being broken away;

Fig. 4 is a vertical sectional view taken on the line 44 of Fig. 3;

Fig. 5 is a vertical sectional view taken on the line 5-5 of Fig. 3; I

Fig. 6 is a vertical sectional view taken on the line 66 of Fig. 3;

, Fig. 7 is a vertical sectional view taken on the line 7-7 of Fig. 3; 1

Fig. 8 is an enlarged sectional view taken on the line 88 of Fig. 3, parts being broken away.

Referring to the drawings, the opener comprises a knife or cutter member 9 and a backing member 10.

The knife member 9 is of sheet metal, preferably stainless steel strip, having angled ends 11 and 12, and preferably of curved cross-section between .its ends as shown in Fig. 6. A rectangular slot 13 is provided in each of the angled ends, the bottom of the slot being undercut at the joint between the angled end and the body of the knife member. One edge of the member 9 has a series of cutting teeth 14 formed therein.

The backing member 10 is preferably of a suitable plastic such as polystyrene, though other suitable rigid slightly resilient materials may be used, and is formed to provide a backing strip portion 15 and reduced section guide portions '16 and 17 that slidably fit in the slots 13, the length of the strip portion 15 being less than the distance between the angled ends of the knife member 9 so that the shorter guide portion 16 may be disengaged from its slot and the backing member moving outwardly "ice ' as indicated in dotted'lines in Fig. 2 to permit the insertion of the sealed end of the bag between the members 9 and 10. The guide portion 17 at its outer end has a hand knob 18 cemented or otherwise suitably secured thereto. The top of the strip portion 15 is provided with spaced lengthwise extending reinforcing ribs 19. The bottom 20 of the strip portion 15 is curved to conform to the curvature of the knife member 9. These parts preferably fit closely together, but since each of them are resilient or capable of bowing between their ends, the knife member having the greater resiliency or flexibility, the sealed end of bags of different thicknesses when introduced between these two members, will be held be tween them, the flexibility of the parts compensating for the bag thickness.

With the above construction, the operator grasping the knob 18 slides the guide portion 16 out of its'slot 13 so that the backing member 10 may be tipped up to the dotted line position shown in Fig. 2. The sealed end of the bag B is then placed between the two members centrally thereof and the backing member then swung back ordown and its guide end 16 then pushed back through the slot 13 bringing the parts to the position shown in Fig. 2 and causingthe two members to exert a clamping pressure on the sealed end of the bag. Then the operator gripping the device with one hand and starting from one edge of the protruding end of the bag end and pulling on this sealed end outwardly or away from the exposed side of the knife with the other hand tears the exposed sealed end from the body of the bag. The backing member is then moved to its open position to release the cut bag.

The bag contacting surfaces of the knife and the backing member are curved so as to produce a better gripping action on the bag.

I desire it to be understood that this invention is not to be limited to any particular form or arrangement of parts except in so far as such limitations are included in the claim.

What I claim as my invention is:

In a bag opener, the combination of a resilient strip of sheet metal having one of its edges formed as a cutting knife and having angled ends provided with slots at their base portions, a backing member for the body of saidv strip having reduced end portions slidably mounted in said slots and normally in abutting engagement with the rear side of said strip, one of said end portions being shorter than the other to permit removal of this end portion from its slot and the swinging of said backing member from its other end portion relative to said strip to permit insertion of the sealed end ofthe bag to be opened between said strip and said member, said reduced end portions when engaged in said slots acting to permit the flexing of both the strip and said backing member to exert a clamping pressure on the sealed end of the bag to assist in holding it while severing its sealed end by said knife.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 514,530 Whittemore .i Feb. 13, 1894 591,638 Rile Oct. 12, 1897 912,075 Cloyes Feb. 9, 1909 1,241,306 Thorson Sept. 25, 1917 1,459,735 Kraft June 26, 1923 1,611,676 Prickitt Dec. 21, 1926 1,726,312 Rapp Aug. 27, 1929 4,766,252 Heindenreich June 24, 1930 1,842,288 Reitmann Ian. 19, 1932 2,339,828 Worth Jan. 25, 1944 

